Ride Review: Moreno Valley

I spent the last week in the former foreclosure capital of Southern California. I didn't find any good deals on housing but the riding was pretty great.

I always go to new areas with the idea that I'll ride whatever is better between the road and the dirt. This week I found two pretty good road rides but spent the majority of my time exploring the trails of the Lake Perris State Recreation Area.

The better of the two road rides was the Oak Glen Loop, a 57-mile ride with 5300' of climbing with the cat 2 Oak Glen (east) climb. I've done this climb from the other side twice during the Breathless Agony Century so I wanted to give it a go from the other side. I managed to get into the Top-10 for the 15-mile climb starting at Live Oak so that went pretty well.

The other road ride I did was a loop that I spotted some local riders doing. Not bad but it seemed to be your typical shop ride loop that tended to avoid any good hills.

MRAP Downhill.

The real surprise for me was the mountain biking. I've been to Lake Perris on numerous occasions but have never ridden here. I always looked at the trail maps and saw that it was just a bunch of sandy horse trails. I had actually planned on making a couple of trips over to Sycamore Canyon while I was in the area but ended up riding at Lake Perris instead. I even managed to put together an 83.3-mile ride for the February Gran Fondo Challenge on STRAVA (Dirty Fondo).

The riding did have some sand as I expected but I also found a bunch of singletrack trails that were similar to those found at Sycamore Canyon and Southridge. The climbs are mostly moderate with the exception of the climb up to Terri Peak. There were two sections on this that weighed in with a grade of over 30 percent. Yes, it is that steep. I managed to get the KOM riding up the MRAP DH to the top of the peak. This was probably one of the steepest grades I've climbed but the surface was solid so it is ridable (shut-up legs).

The view from Terri Peak.

The trails are mostly decomposed granite over hard pack with some rock obstacles thrown in for fun. The soil type means that this place would be a good choice after a rain. It rained twice while I was here and it pretty much just made the conditions better as it packed down the sand.

There are plenty of other things to do at Lake Perris so this would be a great place for a family weekend. There is fishing, boating, hunting, hiking, etc...

The campground is huge with 100+ RV sites and 100+ tent sites. Everything is well maintained and the staff is pretty friendly.

Sunset at Lake Perris.